Oct 2, 2012

In a society that is predicated on competition and really, very often
the ruthless exploitation of one human being by another, the
profiteering off of other people's problems for the purpose of
profiteering, the ruling ideology will very often justify that behavior
by appeals to some fundamental, unalterable human nature.

So, the myth in our society is that people are
competitive, individualistic and selfish by nature. The reality is quite
the opposite.

We have certain human needs. The
only way that you can talk about human nature concretely is by
recognizing that there are certain human needs.

We have a human need for companionship and for close
contact, to be loved, to be attached to, to be accepted, to be seen, to
be received for who we are.

If those needs are met, we develop into people who are compassionate, cooperative, and who have empathy fir other people.

The opposite that we often see in our society is in
fact, a distortion of human nature, precusely because so few people have
their needs met.

So yes you can talk about
human nature, but only in the sense of basic human needs that lead to
certain traits if they are met and a different set of traits if they're
denied.